In the art of vending and dispensing beverages, the prior art has developed and provides special machines for the handling of different classes of beverages. In the case of non-carbonated, fruit-flavored beverages, such as orange, lemon and grape flavored beverages, the prior art provides counter-top machines which comprise box-like bases intended to be engaged and supported atop a counter or the like and which carry upwardly projecting beverage supply tanks. The bases of such machines normally have manually operable beverage dispensing valves or spigots projecting therefrom and house refrigeration systems and recirculating pump means to chill or cool and to circulate the beverage in the supply tanks. In most machines of the character referred to, the tanks have bottom walls formed with downwardly opening cavities in which evaporator coils or units of the refrigeration systems are engaged to effect cooling of the beverage in the tanks and on which pumps of the recirculating pump means are mounted or through which fluid-conducting parts of said pump means are engaged. Finally, the machines of the class here concerned with are provided with substantially flat, horizontal covers removably engaged over and closing the upper ends of the supply tanks.
Machines of the character referred to above have become substantially standardized and while the details of construction and design of machines produced by each manufacturer differ from machines of other manufacturers, all of such machines are essentially alike as regards their general combination and relationship of parts.
In operation and use of machines of the character referred to above, beverage to be vended and dispensed is manually poured into the tanks, at the open tops thereof, from suitable mixing pots or vessels.
The beverages commonly vended and dispensed by the above-noted class of machines will be made up or reconstituted by combining predetermined measured volumes of liquid beverage extract or flavored syrup and water. In those machines which include recirculating pump means, efforts have been made to pour the measured volumes of water and syrup into the tanks of the machines and thereafter let the pump means effect desired mixing of those ingredients, but such practice has proven to be unsatisfactory.
In the recent past, to avoid the inconvenience and many problems attending the manual filling of the supply tanks of beverage dispensing means in the manner noted above, the art has provided proportional mixing means to automatically mix water and syrup together and to deliver the resulting beverage into the supply tanks. In the overwhelming majority of instances, the proportional mixing means include aspirator units with water supply means to connect with pressurized water systems, syrup supply means to connect with supplies of syrup, and delivery means to deliver beverage into the supply tanks of related machines. In addition to the foregoing, the noted proportional mixing means have been provided with electrically operated valves for the water supply means and liquid level responsive switching means positioned within the supply tanks of the machines to control said valve means whereby the supply of beverage in the tanks is maintained above a desired minimum level at all times.
To date, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the above noted proportional mixing means which serve to automate their related beverage machines have consisted of various attachments and are provided in kit form. Their principal components are arranged at the exterior of their related machines and are such that to connect or relate them with the machines requires the drilling of holes and the performing of other modifying work on or within the machines. The work which must be performed on the machines is such that it requires the exercise or special skills and is such that if often spoils the aesthetics of the machines.
The principal utilitarian or functional shortcomings found to exist in the above noted proportional mixing means provided by the art resides in the fact that the supplies of syrup at the exterior of and separate from the machines must, for real and practical reasons, be placed on shelves or within cabinets below the counters or the like on which the machines are supported. Accordingly, the supplies of syrup occur a substantial distance below the mixing units and the supply tanks of the machines and must be connected with the mixing means with elongate, troublesome and unattractive hoses or the like. The special relationship and vertical displacement of the syrup supplies, mixing units and supply tanks results in the delay of flow of syrup and in the establishment of head pressures in the systems which often result in adverse effects. The most commonly encountered adverse effect is the inability of the mixing means to effectively draw and deliver desired volumes of syrup and results in improperly proportioned volumes and syrup and water.
It is to be noted that while the mixing means provided by the prior art and described in the foregoing can be made to operate satisfactorily in test stand installations where the most effective placement of parts can be effected, such placement of parts can seldom be established in practice where the machines must be set atop counters in restaurants and the like and where the supplies of syrup must be hidden from view and are placed under the counters or in some other obscure and remote place.
A serious shortcoming to be found in prior art machines of the character referred to above resides in the fact that when the supplies of syrup are exhausted, the proportional mixing means continue to operate and deliver water into the supply tanks, diluting the beverage therein.
Another shortcoming found to exist in beverage dispensing machines of the character referred to above resides in the fact that the refrigeration systems incorporated therein are low capacity systems which cannot cool or chill a new supply of beverage in a short period of time. Accordingly, when it becomes necessary to refill or replenish the supplies of beverage in such machines, the new supplies of unchilled beverage must be let to stand a protracted period of time to become adequately chilled and before they are ready to be dispensed. To reduce the effect of this serious problem, the supply tanks are made to hold larger than desired volumes of beverage and recommendations are made to replenish the supplies of beverage regularly and before they are depleted to an appreciable extent so that the added new beverage does not warm the remaining supply of beverage excessively.
Another problem found to exist in the use of prior art aspirator type mixing units resides in the fact that the density and viscosity of some beverage syrups changes substantially in response to changes in temperature. As a result of the foregoing, when separate and remote syrup supplies are stored in places where their temperatures are subjected to substantial changes, the rate at which the aspirators can move the syrup and the ratio of syrup and water delivered by the units is subject to corresponding changes. For example, in the cool of the morning, and before a separate and remote syrup supply for a machine is warmed up, the syrup is likely to be thick and slow flowing, while in the heat of the day and when that supply of syrup is warmed up, the syrup is likely to be thin and fast flowing. In such a case, beverage mixed in the morning is likely to be excessively weak and beverage mixed later in the day is likely to be excessively strong.
Finally, in the prior art machines of the character referred to above, wherein the beverage is non-pressurized and wherein the fluid level and resulting head pressure on the beverage in the supply tanks is subject to considerable variation, those time-controlled dispensing valves which are commonly used in pressurized beverage dispensing machines and which are commonly called portion control valves cannot be used since the differences in head pressures which are encountered result in corresponding differences in the volumes of beverage dispensed during opening or cycling of those valves.